{"id":3183,"date":"2016-06-15T12:12:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T16:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=3183"},"modified":"2016-06-15T12:12:21","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T16:12:21","slug":"june-9-2016-post-cards-from-machu-picchu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=3183","title":{"rendered":"June 9, 2016 \u2013 Post Cards From Machu Picchu"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 9, 2016 \u2013 Post Cards From Machu Picchu<\/strong>
\nThe adventure is real. The place is real. Getting to Machu Picchu is at least a quarter and perhaps as much as half of the experience. I don\u2019t really know how to describe this day yet. I\u2019ll write a proper post later trying to capture at least a modicum of what I felt and what went through my head then and to this day regarding this supposedly \u201cLost City of the Incas.\u201d In the meantime, I\u2019ll mainly use this as a photo gallery of the various sights and moments. Some I\u2019ll try and offer commentary on here and there but mostly this\u2019ll be a visual stimulus overload with very little prose. I\u2019m still trying to wrap my head around the notion of visiting this stop on the Seven New Wonders of the World.
\nI overdid it at breakfast this morning, thinking I\u2019d need my strength to climb the various steps and hillsides of Machu Picchu. At the train station, I boarded the wrong train and despite being seated and settled in with the Knox women a few rows behind me, I was pulled from the train to wait 15 minutes for the apparently much more swank VistaDome service. I tried to convey to the conductor that I thought the Knox party might also be on the wrong train but my broken Spanish and her broken English meant never the twain nor train should meet.<\/p>\n

\"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a>
\nIt all worked out \u2013 I got there 15 minutes after them, having enjoyed on the VistaDome a front row seat with nary an obstruction to my view.
\nThe one side note of weirdness is that during the complimentary snack service the options were limited to Coca Cola, Inka Cola (a sorta Mountain Dew-ish yellow), coffee or tea. I thought it a long shot for a Coke Zero or Coke Light and was rebuffed so I asked for just a glass of water\u2026 which apparently they didn\u2019t offer on the drink service. I had my own water with me so I declined but took a mint tea as that\u2019s what my seatmate ordered. Still \u2013 no water? Weird.
\nAt the Estacion Machu Picchu, I met up with the Knoxes and out Condor Travel tour guide, Leo. We had to take a bus to the top of the mountain to enter Machu Picchu and it was a, \u201cthey leave when they\u2019re full\u201d deals\u2026 but they never seemed to have a problem filling the bus. Leo told me there used to three seasons at MP \u2013 slow, medium, and high. These days, with an explosion in tourism, there was medium, high, and CRAZY season.
\nThe bus ride involved 14 corners, switchbacks that wound us up the mountain to the city proper. There were ominous, mysterious clouds hanging about, even a few drizzly drops of rain. Leo said this was very rare and I thought it added to the vibe of the place\u2026 but it made the early morning photos a bit difficult to take. On the plus side, as the day wore on, the clouds dissipated and the shots got ever more amazing.
\nIn 1911, Hiriam Bingham \u201cre-discovered\u201d Machu Picchu. He wasn\u2019t the first to get there, as there were markings and indications other treasure hunters had been there. But he was the biggest cheerleader and proponent of the place and effectively put Machu Picchu back on the map as a place to study and to see.
\nThere\u2019s a lot of facts and figures I could include here, some of which I retained from Leo\u2019s strolling tour, but in truth I think I\u2019d prefer to just let the photos speak for themselves. This is one of those cases where I really do think the pictures are worth thousands and thousands of words.
\nSo here we go \u2013 Post Cards from Machu Picchu:<\/p>\n

\"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a> \"20160609-WEB<\/a>\u00a0 \"20160609-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20160609-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 9, 2016 \u2013 Post Cards From Machu Picchu The adventure is real. The place is real. Getting to Machu Picchu is at least a quarter and perhaps as much as half of the experience. I don\u2019t really know how to describe this day yet. I\u2019ll write a proper post later trying to capture at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[743,741,739,740,742],"class_list":["post-3183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gate","tag-incan-bridge","tag-machu","tag-picchu","tag-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}